


gravity sings

by openended



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Destroy Ending, Gen, Genderqueer Character, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-11 19:58:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2081196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/openended/pseuds/openended
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They came into this world as a team, and they'll leave this world as a team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	gravity sings

**Author's Note:**

> features my Yael and Shoshana Shepard, renegade biotic twins.

> _we make our own gravity to give weight to things; and then things fall, and they break, and gravity sings_ [[x](http://youtu.be/AXL407jPFzk)]

Leaning on each other, the twins trip over unsteady feet and fall to their knees in unison. So close, so near to the end, but the space remaining seems like miles.

Shoshana’s hands slip on the blood-slicked floor, seeking traction to help stand up again. They take a breath, shaky and shallow. Their lungs burn and chest aches, and through the struggle they have their feet underneath them again. But their sister’s still lying on the floor, a pool of blood beneath her. 

"Yael." Their voice is thin, nearly gone. Shoshana swallows and tries again. "Yael, please. Get up." They kneel down next to her, knowing they might not get up again, and touch her shoulder.

"Go," Yael says. Everything hurts, even seeing is excruciating, but she opens her eyes. Shoshana’s still kneeling before her, gun lying on the floor forgotten. "Sho," she coughs, "you have to finish this."

They shake their head. “No, come on.” Soldiers know when they’re done, when there’s no coming back, and Yael’s eyes, normally bright and piercing and focused, are dimming fast. 

_The Butcher of Torfan. They hear about it on the news. The Butcher of Torfan is their sister, and she’s being held in Vancouver until the Alliance can figure out what to do with her._

_Once the shock wears off, Shoshana’s the least surprised of anyone. People look at the two of them and see identical copies: orphaned biotics with concrete-rough edges, not fit for polite company and medals and being paraded out for the cameras, but a perfect fit for the Alliance’s more questionable missions. The Shepard twins get it done._

_But they aren’t copies. The cold mathematics of combat freezes Shoshana in their tracks. Give them a target and it’s gone, but give them an impossible choice and they’ll crumble. Yael’s always been the one to shut down, lock her emotions away, and make the call._

_So Shoshana isn’t terribly surprised. Yael had a horrible decision to make and two minutes to make it in, and she made the right one._

"Please," Shoshana begs. Their strength is fading like the light in Yael’s eyes, but they dig down deep for their last scraps of energy and stand up, Yael’s arm around their shoulders. They nearly lose their balance again, supporting two people on one set of weak legs, but push through and remain standing.

The sudden movement jostles broken and ripped pieces inside of her, and Yael whimpers. Blood drips into her mouth and she focuses entirely on holding onto her twin. If she falls again, Shoshana falls, and she doesn’t think Shoshana could get up again. She knows she couldn’t.

_The Hero of Elysium, the news is saying. Yael’s in a bar when she hears it. The Hero of Elysium is her twin, and the 24-hour networks are showing nonstop footage of the battle’s final moments: Shoshana holding up a biotic field they were never trained for, pushing back the straggling batarian forces._

_In the aftermath, Shoshana tries to hide from the cameras, duck out of the bright lights to fade back into the shadows. Reporters call their evasiveness humility and grace, modesty in the face of true heroism._

_But Yael knows better. It’s shame. Something happened on Elysium that Shoshana isn’t proud of, that they don’t want anyone to discover, that they think will tarnish the victory._

_Finding a way out, finding the key to change everything, has always been Shoshana’s specialty and they don’t even realize it. Where Yael sees two paths with body counts behind them, Shoshana sees a third option. Yael doesn’t ask, and Shoshana doesn’t tell._

_But everyone survived, because of Shoshana._

By the time they’re close to the glowing red conduit, Yael’s no longer awake. Her breath is faint, maybe not even there at all, maybe just wind on Shoshana’s burned skin. Shoshana’s own breath is coming shorter and shorter, the world beginning to spin.

They came into this world as a team and they’ll leave this world as a team, so Shoshana doesn’t stop to check Yael’s thready pulse or pause to try to wake her up. Yael carried them both this far, Shoshana’s portion is comparatively small. Three shots will do it.

Shoshana braces against the creeping darkness around their vision, holds their sister, lifts the gun, and fires.


End file.
